The UMass-Amherst class of 2009 is larger than any other incoming class in the history of the university and has led to overenrollment, according to an article in The Daily Hampshire Gazette. There are 4,400 freshmen in the class. The Gazette attributed the large class to a higher-than-expected matriculation rate along with a slightly larger pool of students accepted into the class.

Due to overenrollment, the university cannot house all of its freshmen. Consequently, UMass is housing 1,015 freshmen and transfer students in areas that have never before been used for housing. The housing options, which the university says are merely temporary, include the lounges and common rooms of various dormitories, UMass' Campus Center Hotel, the University Lodge and the local Howard Johnson Inn on Route 9, according to The Gazette. Six hundred ninety students are living in lounges and common space, 290 are living in the hotels and 35 are living at home for the first semester in exchange for a free parking permit and a discount off their second semester housing fees.

According to The Gazette, because of the large number of freshmen, approximately 200 upperclassmen were denied on-campus housing.

There are other drawbacks to UMass' overenrollement. According to some students at the university, temporary residences do not have the same wireless capabilities that the students in typical on-campus dormitories enjoy.

UMass' overenrollment problem may get worse before it gets better since the university has offered admission to some victims of Hurricane Katrina. Moreover, The Gazette reported that university officials are unsure of when students living in hotels and common rooms will be able to move into regular dormrooms.

Despite the immediate drawbacks to the university's overcrowing, UMass students can find reassurance in UMass' plan to build new residence halls. According to a UMass-Amherst news release, the university broke ground for four new residence halls. The new dorms will accommodate 864 beds in all. The press release stated that "each individual apartment-style unit will include four bedrooms, air conditioning, two full baths and a common living room/kitchen area, a pantry, floor-to-ceiling windows, and cable and Ethernet connections in each bedroom." University officials say that the new buildings "will meet the needs of students who seek on-campus housing but also want a more autonomous living situation." The university also believes that the new residence halls will allow UMass to compete with other universities with similar living options.

The housing project, which will cost UMass $98.7 million, should be complete by August, 2006. This will be the first time since 1971 that UMass-Amherst has built new dorms.

"These residence halls form part of the transformation of this campus that includes investing in the quality of our academic programs for students, expanding our faculty resources, and repairing and renovating our buildings and grounds," said UMass-Amherst Chancellor John. V. Lombardi in the university's press release. "This project symbolizes our commitment to sustaining a nationally preeminent public research university for our students and the Commonwealth."